Business Construction
As a leader, it is of the utmost importance that you do everything in your power to ensure that the people underneath you are taken care of to the best of your ability. Unfortunately, sometimes, accidents will happen, or oversights will occur. Not even malicious ones, like cutting corners which lead to someone sustaining an injury or worse, although that is indeed a possibility. In the event that a worker is hurt on your business construction site, there are certain things that you will be expected to do in order to get things sorted.
seek medical attention for the injured worker as soon as possible. Even if the accident appears minor at first glance, it’s crucial to have a medical professional assess and treat any injuries promptly. Secondly, document the incident thoroughly by taking photographs of the scene and recording witness statements.
Accurate documentation is critical should there be any legal issues surrounding worker compensation claims or lawsuits. Business owners need to adhere strictly to OSHA compliance training guidelines when accidents happen on their premises.
What do you do if a worker was hurt on your business construction site?
For employees, their first obligation is to report the injury that they or someone else has sustained to their employer (or an immediate supervisor who can then report to the employer). This helps ensure that valuable treatment is not delayed. In the immediate situation of the injury, the first thing you should do is assess the injury or injuries or get someone who can assess them. Once the injuries and their severity have been assessed, ensure that these injuries as treated immediately. In the event that the injuries require emergency care workers in order to treat them, do not dilly-dally on that. Get contact with emergency services as soon as humanly possible, as every moment that the injuries are not properly treated is a moment that the people injured may get worse.
There are certainly a number of potential risks associated with working on a business construction site; as such, it is important that you take care in safeguarding the site as much as you reasonably can. Make sure that all of your safety equipment is up to standards and that you have all the equipment that is expected of you under Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) regulations. Making sure that you meet all these standards as well as respond to any and all injuries that occur on the workplace. Even beyond the moral imperative that you have to keep your employees safe and healthy, allowing things to worsen, ignoring them, dismissing the complaints of injuries, or being unwilling to accept a workers’ compensation claim may wind up making it worse for your company than it would be if you just did the right thing in the first place. For example, if your ignorance of an injury makes the injury worse or even leads to death, that could result in you being the target of a lawsuit for negligence. All boats rise in a storm when you take care with your employees.
A workers’ compensation is not itself a lawsuit; rather, it is more akin to an insurance filing on the part of the employee. Some employers may be of the belief that they can deny workers’ compensation claims made by an employee in the event that they were negligent, or that the fault lied with a co-worker instead of you or the safety standards of the construction site. This is not true; regardless of why the injury occurred, your employees are still entitled to workers’ compensation. For pretty much any employer, it is terribly important that they take good care of their employees, both before an injury occurs and afterward. If your employees come to view you as an employer who does not take this kind of thing seriously, you run a serious risk that your employees can no longer trust you and may even leave for an employer that they feel does a better job of looking out for their interests. Being a business known for a construction site accident is not a good reputation to have either, as it discourages potential new hires from wanting to work for you. Nothing is worth potentially being permanently injured on the job.
What to do if an employee is permanently or temporarily disabled
After the injury occurs, the employee may need to take time off in order to recover from their injuries, which they will be entitled to do so as part of disability protections for employees. In certain circumstances, you will be expected to pay disability payments as partial compensation for the wages they lost out on as a result of the injury. Before they can begin this process, the worker needs to consult with a doctor, who will then determine whether they are able to work or not. There is certainly a risk of an outcome worse than a temporary disability, however; in some cases, an injury may result in permanent injuries, such that you are not able to perform as well in the job market as you would have been able to before the injury occurred. In response to this, they will be able to pursue some kind of monetary compensation to make up for that lack of ability to compete. In this case, there may also be opportunities provided through compensation. Namely, they may be able to receive some form of job training to try to make up for the competitiveness lost as a result of the permanent disability.
